Parents Online Safety Briefing

Notes for Parents who were not able to attend the presentation

Presenter: Julie Poynsenby, CEOP, supported by PC Gary Gates, Family Intervention Officer

Why should we be worried about children’s use of the internet ?

1.            The nature of childhood

• Children are very “technology-savvy”, in most cases more than their parents

• Children respond to instant gratification, and need to know now

• Children are naturally inquisitive, and like to experiment

• New technology has opened up huge opportunities for predatory adults to access children, AND to establish their own rings and networks between themselves to share information

• In terms of child development, children have a heightened need to communicate

• Children may perceive the internet as private, free from parental control, a means of instant communication, and this can affect their judgement; children also tend to be trusting

• A minority of children develop a completely different persona when on-line to their “real world” one

2.            The extent of internet use (2011 figures)

• 67.4% of all child abuse reports stem from chat rooms and instant messaging services

• The average number of “friends” on Facebook is 130: do you know 130 people well enough to trust them all implicitly ?

• Of every eight minutes web users spend on the internet, one is on Facebook

• There were 2 billion photos on Facebook alone

• 75% of Facebook users are outside the USA

• 75% of 16-24 year old internet users post, and 50% upload material

• There are 30 million Facebook users in the UK

3.            Educators’ concerns over excessive internet use

• Rushing of homework in order to get on-line

• 58% of educators consider children’s spelling is suffering

• Handwriting is deteriorating

• A minority of students become internet/gaming obsessed, seriously affecting their schoolwork and often their attitude/behaviour in school

             Similarly, a minority suffer from diminished sleep time, both affecting their schoolwork and their ability to engage in “normal” social interaction

• There has been a sharp increase in snatch robberies in the street and in one or two schools, especially on the way home: wearing earphones in the street advertises that the person probably has an iPod or smart phone and will probably get it out in a few minutes

• About a third of young people claim their main source of sex education is the internet. This seems to be leading to more aggressive sexual practices, especially by young men, in the “real world”.

4.            Cyber-bullying

• There are seven main forms of cyber-bullying: texts, photo messages, silent or abusive phone calls, e-mails, chat rooms, instant messaging services, and websites/blogs.

• The nature of cyber-bullying is changing; as with adult predators, the increase of on-line X-box style gaming chat rooms is becoming more commonly used for cyber-bullying.

How to protect your children

• Don’t allow children to have a computer, laptop, or internet-connected gaming box in their bedroom.

• Don’t allow, or supervise the use of, webcams

• Negotiate being given your child’s password(s), even in a sealed envelope.

• Make sure your child puts no personal contact details on their sites: this includes: address, phone numbers, e-mail address, messenger or Facebook id, school attended, information about friends or family.

• The idea of “stranger danger” taught and well-understood at Primary School is exactly the same idea when using the internet (80% of child abuse through the internet is the responsibility of strangers)

• Talk about what is and isn’t appropriate in terms of posting pictures. Once a picture is on the web, it is there for ever and could come to light in the future.

• Everyone needs to understand that sharing or uploading picture and personal information through the internet is effectively publishing it to the world.

• Although they shouldn’t, employers are undertaking searches on applicants’ names to see what they are really like before interviewing/recruiting. In other words, a couple of innocent indiscretions could affect career chances.

• Make sure Facebook privacy settings are secure, and that your child realises they will actively have to opt out of facilities like Facebook Places. In 2009, Facebook changed its settings without notification, meaning that a lot of its content became public which had previously been private. This summer, Facebook has enabled automatic electronic tagging.

• Use the parental controls provided by your broadband service or anti-virus software

Advice and support

• CEOP (Child Exploitation and On-line Protection) has its own website www.ceop.police.uk/

• To report a concern, “click CEOP” 

• An extremely useful site covering e-safety from age 5 to adult, with information and activities for all ages of children, is www.thinkuknow.co.uk

• Please report any concerns and cyber-bullying in particular to us (tutor, Head of Year, Mr Colin): we can often deal with minor incidents, and always take advice and fully cooperate with the Police when necessary.

• Students are taught explicitly about e-safety in Year 7 and Year 9 as part of the ICT programme of study, and reminded through ICT lessons, the PSD programme, and assemblies at various times.

A Sense of Perspective

The majority of young people are sensible, responsible users of the internet, and will not knowingly put themselves at risk. However, the internet can be a very dangerous place: parents and students must never be complacent, and, sadly, there are people out there who use very cunning strategies to put young people unknowingly at risk.